After the United States lost 2-1 to Canada on Sunday, Mauricio Pochettino urged patience, stating that there was still time to improve before the World Cup the following year.
Pochettino had urged his team to play with more urgency and take more chances in Sunday’s third-place match against Canada following their humiliating Concacaf Nations League semifinal loss to Panama on Thursday.
However, based on yet another lackluster performance from Pochettino’s team, who failed to take a single shot, on or off target, in the first half hour at SoFi Stadium, it seemed that those cries had gone unanswered.
The 2026 World Cup co-hosts, who will play their opening match at the same location on June 12 of next year, put on another disappointing display.
Pochettino, who took over last year following Gregg Berhalter’s disastrous second stint, is certain that his team will be in far better form by then.
“There are numerous instances in various years of teams preparing to compete in the World Cup that weren’t very good until they got there,” Pochettino stated.
‘Don’t be negative, don’t feel bad,’ is what I want to convey to the fans. It is possible. However, the World Cup is the primary goal,” the Argentine continued.
“It’s always painful when you lose, but we need to accept it. But I don’t want people to feel pessimistic. We are all disappointed that we didn’t win but I’m not going to allow us to feel pessimistic because I think we have good players.
“We are going to find a way to perform and for sure we are going to compete and we are going to get different results from those that we got from Thursday and today.”
However, Pochettino admitted that it would be concerning if the team did not get better over the course of the following year as they prepared for the World Cup.
“If we are in this situation, in one year’s time, for sure, I will tell you, ‘Houston, we have a problem. S.O.S.,” Pochettino said.
“But you will see in one year if we are talking about that, we will have a big problem. Because it will mean that we were not capable of discovering and designing a better strategy to provide the team with the capacity to play in a different way.
“I think we have time. I prefer that what happened today, happened today and not in one year’s time.”
United States skipper Christian Pulisic said that “some things need to change” following Sunday’s loss.
“Obviously disappointed. We’ve gotta come back from this, we’re not at our best at the moment,” Pulisic said.
“All we can do now is go back and be the best example we can be at our clubs… and when we come back of course, some things need to change and we need to improve.
“We’re gonna look back and see what that is. I don’t have all the answers at the moment.”
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